课程概况
无论你是刚刚对电子游戏产生兴趣的新手玩家，还是想在游戏里挥洒激情的资深玩家，可能你都会好奇故事、漫画以及电影究竟是怎么被改编成网络游戏的。本课将会带你一探究竟。《指环王》 三部曲 — 相关的小说，电影及游戏 — 将是我们的主要研究对象。通过对它们的研究，来揭秘那些我们熟悉的故事在被改编时究竟会经过怎样的“调整”。我们将在对比其它游戏的基础上，如：《最终幻想》， 《星球大战：旧共和国》， 《上古卷轴5：天际》，来研究《指环王网络版》™（LOTRO）这款游戏，同时还将涉及叙事理论；媒介间性；游戏理论；斯宾塞，柯勒律治，济慈以及勃朗宁等人的诗歌；托尔金及其他人的一些小说；和对许多奇幻文学与游戏的新中世纪主义有所影响的拉斐尔前派艺术。
流传千古的浪漫故事在经过数个世纪发展沉淀后，21世纪的游戏产业已然成为了一个富于创造力与经济效益的行业。吸引了社会上最天才的优秀作家，艺术家，作曲家，计算机工程师，游戏理论家，视频制作人和市场营销专家。至2012年，整个行业的年利润达到约640亿美元。任何对现代文化感兴趣的人，都应该去熟悉并探究这种改变故事认知的新型媒介方式。加入我们，一起来一场智力大冒险，去探索网络游戏留给我们的文化遗产。
Intended for both newcomers who are curious about video games and experienced gamers who want to reflect on their passion, this course will explore what happens to stories, paintings, and films when they become the basis of massively multiplayer online games. The Lord of the Rings trilogy—the novels, films, and video game—are our central example of how “remediation” transforms familiar stories as they move across media.
The course is designed as a university-level English literature class—a multi-genre, multimedia tour of how literature, film, and games engage in the basic human activity of storytelling. Our journey will enable us to learn something about narrative theory, introduce us to some key topics in media studies and cover some of the history and theory of video games. It will also take us to some landmarks of romance literature, the neverending story that lies behind most fantasy games: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, a bit of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and poems by Keats, Tennyson, Browning, and others.
Drawing on centuries of romance narrative conventions, the twenty-first century gaming industry has become a creative and economic powerhouse. It engages the talents of some of our brightest writers, artists, composers, computer engineers, game theorists, video producers, and marketing professionals, and in 2012, it generated an estimated $64 billion in revenue. Anyone interested in today’s culture needs to be conversant with the ways this new medium is altering our understanding of stories. Join me as we set out on an intellectual adventure, the quest to discover the cultural heritage of online games.
课程大纲
周1
完成时间为 2 小时
Game on! The History and Theory of MMOs
The course opens with a brief look at gaming culture and history, then introduces the chief game we will study, Turbine's "The Lord of the Rings Online." We then look at some key concepts in game theory such as remediation and Jesper Juul's treatment of rules and game design from his book "Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds." We end by considering games as journeys using Constantine Cavafy's poem "Ithaca."For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab. ***For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab.
9 个视频 （总计 94 分钟）, 1 个阅读材料, 2 个测验
周2
完成时间为 4 小时
LOTRO and Tolkien
After an overview of storytelling modes, we turn to Tolkien and his work. We then examine the role of quests in games and literature. Finally, we introduce romance and lyric literature using Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." ***For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab.
10 个视频 （总计 113 分钟）, 3 个测验
周3
完成时间为 2 小时
Romance and Realism
This week we journey into the Mines of Moria, comparing a scene in Tolkien's novel, Peter Jackson's film, and "The Lord of the Rings Online." Then it's back to romance literature to delve into the intricacies of allegory, plot, theme, and character. The week closes with a look at John Keats' haunting ballad, "La Belle Dame sans Merci." ***For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab.
13 个视频 （总计 129 分钟）, 2 个测验
周4
完成时间为 4 小时
Space and Time in Three Media
Week 4's initial focus is our natural concepts of space and time, and how these dimensions inform the "storyworld" of a narrative. We then examine how directors, authors, and video game developers use these innate frameworks to tell stories, invoking Seymour Chapman's book "Film and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film." Close attention is paid to the mechanics of point of view, and how its use allows artists to connect with audiences. ***For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab.
10 个视频 （总计 75 分钟）, 3 个测验
周5
完成时间为 2 小时
Pwning Spenser’s Faerie Queene
Hold on tight as we plunge into a discussion of Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," one of the greatest romance poems in English. You will see for yourself how deep the vein of romance is when you read this story of knights, castles, an evil seductress, and an indomitable heroine. Then watch how a group of students remediated the same story in a video game they created: "Faerie Queene Online." ***For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab.
7 个视频 （总计 87 分钟）, 2 个测验
周6
完成时间为 4 小时
The Holy Grail: A Good End Game
Since Aristotle, the one constant in the study of narrative has been the analysis of beginnings, middles, and ends. As is appropriate for our last week, we spend much of our time examining how Tolkien takes leave of his readers at the end of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The final stage of MMOs--when your character has maxed out and completed all the quests--has always presented challenges to game makers. Although LOTRO continues to take us on our journey toward Mordor, it cannot escape the challenge of creating end-game material for advanced players. We look at two attempts to include advanced players in the events of Western Rohan and Helm's Deep. Finally, we ponder what comes after the end, as we read Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, "Ulysses." ***For details about this week's Readings, go to the Syllabus page in your Resources tab.
9 个视频 （总计 96 分钟）, 3 个测验
预备知识
没有任何背景要求 无论你是对电子游戏感到好奇的非玩家，还是对流行文化与严肃文学都同样感兴趣的爱好者，或者是一周带领三次夜间突袭的公会领导者，本课程都会激发你的思考，进一步的思考我们的文化面临的重要问题。
本课并不需要你一定玩过《指环王网络版》™（LOTRO）。因为我们的课程一共分为两种，一种专门为玩《指环王网络版》的同学设计，另一种为那些不玩游戏但却想了解电子游戏、托尔金和浪漫传统的同学设计。
《指环王网络版》是一款免费网游。无论是下载还是开始游戏你都无需花费任何费用，并且在我们要进行研究的夏尔，布理，孤土等地进行游戏也是完全免费的。大部分玩家可能会在数月后为取得Turbine 公司的VIP的身份而付费，不过游戏的免费内容足以让你游玩数月。想要玩《指环王网络版》这款游戏的同学，你需要一台配置足够的电脑。具体配置请见Turbine公司的网站： http://www.lotro.com/free.php.
参考资料
上课之前，建议你阅读和观看J. R. R. 托尔金的《指环王：护戒使者》和彼得·杰克逊的电影 《指环王：护戒使者》。除此之外，我们建议同学们完整的观看完《指环王》三部曲，但这些并不强制。
